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Updated Lookup Tool for Domain Name Registration Data Now Available

29 July 2019
By Trang Nguyen

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Today, ICANN is launching an updated version of its lookup tool that makes use of the Registration Data Access Protocol, known as RDAP, to query, parse, and display registration data in a human-friendly format. The lookup tool – which gives users the ability to look up publicly available contact and other information related to a domain name – has been provided as a free public service since 2013.

RDAP was developed by the technical community in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as an eventual replacement for the WHOIS protocol. In late August, ICANN accredited registrars and registry operators will be required to provide registration data directory services through RDAP in addition to the WHOIS services.

ICANN's updated lookup tool will utilize RDAP as the primary protocol to perform the lookup. Should the RDAP lookup fail for any reason, users will be prompted with a request to optionally perform a WHOIS lookup. If users opt-in to use the WHOIS failover lookup, the tool will return results from the relevant WHOIS service, when available.

The updated tool has no impact on how users perform searches for registration data. Users simply enter a domain name into a search box to retrieve current publicly available registration data. This set of registration data is referred to as "Domain Name Registration Data." Due to applicable law and ICANN policies, results containing personal data associated with the queried domain name may be redacted for privacy. Across different registrars and registry operators, there may be variances in the data that is returned as redacted.

The updated tool also includes improvements to make the display of search results more user friendly. For example, the search results are displayed in a single-column layout to easily read longer datasets. Additionally, the raw data from the registrar and registry operator for each query is also made available.

In the event that users identify potentially inaccurate registration data or the RDAP or WHOIS service is unavailable, the website continues to provide a link to the WHOIS Inaccuracy and WHOIS Service complaint forms where these can be reported to ICANN Contractual Compliance.

We invite users to try out this new tool. For any questions about the use of this tool, please email globalsupport@icann.org.

Authors

Trang Nguyen